Recipe of the week

Ingredients:

Pastry:

350g plain flour

2 tsp golden caster sugar

250g unsalted butter, frozen and then grated

2 egg yolks (reserving the egg whites)

80ml whole milk

Filling:

2kg Pink Lady apples, peeled, cored and sliced 1.2cm thick

100g unsalted butter

½ tsp nutmeg

1 tsp cinnamon

1 juice of a lemon

2 cloves

70g light brown muscovado sugar

1 tsp vanilla paste

2 tbsp cornflour with 100ml of water

Some extra butter and flour for greasing the dish

Top:

1 egg beaten with 1 tbsp of milk

2 tbsp demerara sugar

Method:

First make the pastry:

In a food processor add the flour and caster sugar. Grate the frozen butter. Pulse in the butter bit by bit until you achieve breadcrumb consistency. Gradually add the egg yolks mixing all the time and then the milk, until it all comes together to make a smooth pastry.

Once the pastry has come together squash into a circle and cover with either grease-proof paper or cling film and rest in the fridge for an hour.

Meanwhile make the filling:

In a large deep pan on a medium heat, add the butter, sliced apples, nutmeg, cinnamon, lemon juice, muscovado sugar, vanilla paste, cloves and cook out for five minutes to soften the apples and the spices. Whisk the water into the cornflour and then add to the pan with the apples. Keep cooking for another 10 minutes. Leave to cool.

Back to the pastry:

Take out of the fridge, cut it nearly in half, with one half slightly larger, as you’ll need a bit more for the bottom pastry of the pie. Roll onto two pieces of grease-proof paper, one on the bottom and one on the top, not adding flour as this dries out the pastry. Roll and rotate 90 degrees every few rolls, turn upside down and unpeel from the grease-proof paper every now and then so it doesn’t stick.

You want to roll the pastry out to about a 5mm thickness, and roll the larger piece of pastry so that it’s large enough to cover the base of your pie dish and roll the top pastry so that it’s wide enough to cover the top.

Grease the bottom of a 24cm pie dish with butter and sprinkle with flour. Line the bottom of the pie dish with the largest pastry, with some overhanging the lip. Brush the base and sides of the pastry with the leftover egg whites. This effectively seals the pastry so it doesn’t get a soggy base.

Now build your pie:

Add the cooled apple mix to the pie. You want to layer them so there are no gaps and the top is as flat as possible and in line with the rim of the pie dish. Lay the top pastry over the slices.

Trim any excess pastry off. Crimp the edge of the pie with your thumb and forefingers.

With any excess pastry roll out and cut a desired pattern for your pie top. Brush the whole top with your egg milk glaze and sprinkle with the demerara sugar. Leave in the fridge for 20 minutes to avoiding shrinking pastry.

Put a baking tray into the middle of the oven and preheat to 180℃. You want a hot tray for the pie to go on so it cooks the base of the pastry perfectly.

Pop your pie into the oven on the middle shelf and bake for about 40-50 minutes but keep an eye on it in case it starts getting too brown in areas. If it does start to burn or catch, cover with some tin foil or rotate.

Once cooked, leave on a cooling rack. Leave for a couple of hours before cutting to let everything settle and hold its shape.

Serve with vanilla ice-cream or custard.

Recipe and photos: https://www.apple-pinklady.com/